How Consulting Firms Get Clients: McKinsey, Bain, BCG and the Big Four

Consulting firms get clients by developing relationships, demonstrating expertise, identifying work they can help with, and pursuing specific opportunities. Public materials from McKinsey, Bain, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the Big Four show senior consultants sharing this responsibility with account-management, marketing and business-development teams.

For a solo consultant, the useful question is which parts of that work you can do consistently with the resources you have.

This comparison uses the firms' own public career pages, role descriptions and program materials. They document responsibilities and examples of practice. They don't reveal a complete internal sales playbook or tell us which channel produces the most revenue. Where a source concerns one office or role, that scope matters.

Read the sections on McKinsey, Bain, BCG, and the Big Four, or go to practices a smaller firm can use.

How does McKinsey get clients?

McKinsey publicly assigns client development to senior consulting roles. Its associate partners identify new opportunities while overseeing delivery; partners advise senior executives and lead major client relationships. Those responsibilities appear in McKinsey's consulting career guide.

A more detailed example appears in a client-development role for the Japanese public sector. The description separates work before a client decides to commission an engagement, management of a qualified opportunity, and preparation of a formal proposal.

The role includes account planning, opportunity tracking, procurement relationships, competitive research and proposal coordination. Preparation starts before a tender arrives, although the description explicitly places that activity within compliant procurement practices.

That example supports a practical distinction: an account worth understanding, a possible engagement, and an invitation to submit a proposal are different situations. A consultant who treats them all as “leads” loses information about what should happen next.

How does Bain get clients?

Bain's public description of the partner role is unusually direct: partners take responsibility for finding new client business and delivering client results. The firm also says it supports partners in cultivating personal networks that become recurring sources of business. Associate partners practice developing business before reaching that role. See Bain's management consulting career path.

This connects commercial responsibility to the person responsible for the work.

Bain also describes internal marketing teams that create content, run campaigns and cultivate strategic accounts. Its marketing careers page includes account management and demand generation, so the public picture extends beyond individual partners knowing people.

The application for a small practice is straightforward. Keep developing relationships while you're busy delivering. When a project ends, agree whether a future conversation would be useful and what would justify it. Useful publishing can support that relationship, but a newsletter subscription alone doesn't tell you what the person needs.

How does BCG get clients?

BCG's public career guidance in Stockholm places lasting client relationships, business development and publishing original perspectives within the principal role. It describes partners as trusted client advisors who contribute ideas and support the firm's growth. Expert project leaders also help scope work and support commercial activity. These responsibilities appear in BCG's Stockholm career-path guide.

These responsibilities connect client relationships and substantive expertise with business development.

For an independent consultant, a useful equivalent is a defensible point of view about a problem you know well. Explain what you would investigate, which decisions matter, and where your experience stops. That gives a prospective client something more concrete to evaluate than a list of capabilities.

How do the Big Four get clients?

Deloitte, PwC, EY and KPMG publish evidence of organized account development as well as senior relationship roles. Their member firms and practices differ, so the examples below describe specific public sources rather than a single Big Four sales system.

Deloitte: relationships and executive programs

A Deloitte Private client-relationship profile describes connecting private businesses with relevant firm services and keeping clients informed about industry changes. It gives a concrete example of someone attending to the relationship beyond the delivery of one project.

Deloitte also documents executive programs. Its Chief Executive Program Labs include sessions around leadership transitions, executive-team priorities and business transformation.

A smaller firm can borrow the format of a focused working conversation. For example, offer to help a leadership team clarify the decisions behind an upcoming operating review. Be clear about the scope and fee, if any. The discussion should have a useful outcome even if it produces no further work.

PwC: a practiced approach to pursuing work

PwC Philippines describes Pursuit 2.0 as a global business-development framework in its account of a 2024 partner-and-director workshop. Participants discussed client understanding, tailored proposals, coaching and the stages of an opportunity.

The article shows that PwC trains people to pursue work and provides a framework for that activity.

You don't need a proprietary framework to review a proposal. Before drafting, write down the decision the client faces, what you have confirmed, why your experience is relevant, and what remains unresolved. Afterward, record the reason the work proceeded or stopped, if the client tells you. Don't replace an unknown reason with “price.”

EY: account coordination has an owner

An EY financial-services account-manager role in Hong Kong spells out account plans, stakeholder relationships, recurring account meetings, action tracking, client feedback, relevant research and CRM discipline. It also includes support for proposals and contracting.

This is the work that can disappear between conversations: preparing the right material, knowing who needs to act, and following an agreed action through. The role is intended to reduce the time account partners and teams spend on non-engagement activity.

A solo practitioner may perform both roles, but can still distinguish the tasks. Finish a delivery review with delivery actions; maintain a separate account note for relationships, future decisions and permitted follow-up. The key account management guide includes a plan for doing that.

KPMG: senior roles combine quality and business development

KPMG assigns key account management to senior managers and client-portfolio development to directors in its Ukrainian career guidance. It describes partners as responsible for service quality and business development.

The useful application is to keep an account's service experience in view when considering further work. A new proposal doesn't resolve an overdue commitment. Confirm whether the current engagement is doing what the client expected before assuming the relationship is ready for another conversation about scope.

What a smaller firm can put into practice

The following routine is my practical interpretation of the public examples, not a reproduction of any firm's internal process. It works as a planning exercise whether you have a CRM or a document.

Give each important account a reason to be there

Write why the organization belongs on your list. “Large company” isn't enough. A better reason connects your experience to a business question you can investigate, alongside any relationship that makes a conversation appropriate.

Keep a possible need separate from a confirmed request. If you haven't spoken with anyone about the problem, record the uncertainty. Our guide to getting consulting clients covers developing that first conversation.

Match the next action to the decision

Suppose, in an illustrative example, you help services businesses redesign onboarding. A former client mentions that a new customer segment creates exceptions in their process. You know the issue exists because they described it; you don't yet know whether they want outside help.

The next action might be a short discussion of which exceptions matter and who owns the process. Sending a full proposal would skip those questions. If a project later becomes plausible, confirm scope, decision responsibility and purchasing steps before investing in a detailed offer.

Keep a small set of useful proof

Prepare examples you have permission to share, an explanation of your approach, and a few questions that show how you think. Match them to the client's issue. A past project can demonstrate relevant experience without implying the same result will follow in a different organization.

If you publish, use the questions that repeatedly need explanation. Client nurturing becomes easier to justify when the material helps someone with a decision they actually face.

Review commitments, not just pipeline totals

At a regular review, ask what changed and which agreed actions remain open. An illustrative account note might look like this:

Choose a review frequency you can maintain and adjust it to active commitments. The point is to make follow-through visible, not to add meetings.

Questions about consulting business development

Do consulting firms rely entirely on referrals?

The sources above don't support that claim. Bain explicitly discusses partners' networks, while other public materials describe marketing, account coordination and formal pursuits. They don't establish the share of revenue each channel generates. For your own practice, record how an opportunity began rather than assuming the answer from the firm's reputation.

How do consulting partners sell?

The public role descriptions above connect partner business development with senior client relationships, relevant expertise and responsibility for results. They show partners developing opportunities and drawing on colleagues' capabilities. They don't establish a standard partner quota, a universal outreach routine, or a requirement that every engagement begin with a personal referral.

Does a solo consultant need a consulting sales process?

Borrow practices you can operate well: understand the account, demonstrate relevant expertise, confirm the opportunity and follow through. You may perform work that a larger firm divides among several people. Copying its organizational structure is less useful than making those responsibilities explicit in your own week.

If you want to explore how research supports this work, alkemy's Key Accounts brings company research, people, developments and meeting preparation together. Open the sample workspace to inspect the available account context and consider which questions you would still need to ask a client.

Public sources checked October 2, 2026.